How could an Opportunity Culture help an entire district, not just a few schools? As the keynote speakers at Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Leadership Conference on Monday, Public Impact’s Bryan C. Hassel and Jiye Grace Han gave 500 leaders—including principals, assistant principals, and district administrators—a chance to envision a district that reaches every student with excellent teachers and teaching teams, for higher pay, within budget.
Four of Charlotte’s Project L.I.F.T. schools will implement their own carefully designed Opportunity Cultures this fall—but Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison wanted his schools’ leaders to think big, with a conference theme of “Student Success by DESIGN: The Transformation of Our Schools.” He invited Hassel and Han to explain how using an Opportunity Culture and extending the reach of excellent teachers as central design concepts could help schools achieve the transformation Morrison wants to see district-wide.
Hassel explained the core models for extending the reach of excellent teachers to more students, showing how design teams at the four L.I.F.T. schools worked over the past year to plan how to reach all their students with great teachers. Han, an excellent teacher herself before coming to Public Impact and working closely with the L.I.F.T. schools, discussed all the possibilities an Opportunity Culture creates for teachers. And Hassel explored how reach models, especially Multi-Classroom Leadership, could enhance the ability of principals and assistant principals to carry out their vital leadership roles.
Curious about how schools design an Opportunity Culture? See our Tools for School Design Teams page. And see our Q&A with one Project L.I.F.T. teacher and design team member excited about the possibilities coming this fall. Meanwhile, keep watching for more news from this groundbreaking district.